Reviewing Totally Spies:

This is an old article pending revision.

This is one of the best more recent animated TV series. It was not made in the 1980s but it is just as good as some of the cartoons made in the 1980s and earlier.

This brings hope for modern TV shows, the majority of which suck. This show is unique. It is not the stereotypical TV series.

It is produced by Marathon, a French company even though it looks like it is Japanese. I like Japanese TV shows. Most them are very high quality, and some look even BETTER than CGI. They also have all the eccentricities of some of the animes. These include exaggerated sweating, crying, and tempers. There was one time when Clover was so angry she caught fire and they had to dump water on her!

I also like Marathon because the quality of its programming resembles Filmation. It even has a production credit before the epsiodes start, just like the "Filmation Presents" of the 1980s. And the sounds and animation in the Marathon production credit is impressive.

The characters:

Sam is the leader with long red hair. She is an intellectual. Clover has blonde hair and is artistic. She is the grouchiest spy. Alex has black hair and she is athletic. She is the nicest spy. Jerry is their boss and at one time they were assisted by G.L.A.D.I.S. (whenever she felt like it) They work for the extremely large World Organization Of Human Protection. (a great ackronym, which included the "Of". I hate it when people leave that out in ackronyms.) Mandy and her friends are their rivals but usually they are not villians LOL.

I think that the characters resemble The PowerPuff Girls, only much better. They are very similar except Clover has Buttercup's personality and Alex has Bubbles's personality, but Clover has Bubbles's appearance while Alex has Buttercup's appearance. I guess you  could say that Mandy is similar to Princess. Also many people think that this is an animated version of Charlie's Angels.

The show contains excellent animation, music, writing, and characters. The first episodes aren't that interesting to watch. They should have given the show more thought before releasing it. The "Totally Spies" logo was a dull chrome before they "painted" it pink later on. And the characters should have had more eccentric personalities in the first episodes.

I like the gadgets that they have. This show is very creative because they introduce so many gadgets, and they are disguised as common cosmetics supplies. In season 3 they added G.L.A.D.I.S. which means Gadget Lending And Distribution Interactive System. This is a very clever name and I always enjoyed the smart aleck robot. She should not have left. They should not have written her out. Some viewers apparently thought she got in the way of Jerry. On the contrary. I think because Jerry invented G.L.A.D.I.S. it shows how much of an expert that he is because he is capable of inventing useful robots, and the fact that G.L.A.D.I.S. clearly has a mind of her own means that he can create robots that are self-aware.

The villians are nice also. They have the usual diabolical laughter which is great, but  the villians are unique and even crazier than just their laughter. And a few of the villians are actually really scary. As for the plots, the spies go onto missions that often match the theme of an all girl spy team with gadgets disguised as cosmetics. (plants that knock out men, a jealous manicure artist wanting to destroy competition, etc.)

So what if this is not a true Anime?! It is still dubbed into Japanese.